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Jason Lim (61) and Shane Tan (62) live at 2 Watson Road, and 4 Watson Road, respectively. Their housing lots are separated by a small canal. Thus, while Jason and Shane can see each other’s houses across the canal, they are unable to cross over it. However, they can reach each other’s houses via Watson Road.

Jason and Shane have actually known each other for many years, since their childhood days. Their parents were friends and neighbors, and the families even took vacations together. After their parents passed away, the two men continued living on the same properties by themselves, but rarely socialized with each other. However, they remained amicable until recently. The COVID lockdown stressed them both out and increased existing tensions. Now they live in a state of war.

During an informal mediation session earlier this year, in which a mutual friend managed to make them enter, the following information was revealed.

According to Shane, “Jason burns weird incense and blares Georgian chants at odd hours. I can smell and hear everything!” He also claims that Jason “lets his garden grow wild”. The disorder makes the neat-nik Shane upset. Shane’s garden is a thing of beauty, with rows of perfectly grown flowers. No weeds dare to grow in his garden either.

In particular, Shane is upset about a large tree in Jason’s garden, which tree abuts the canal separating their houses. Leaves and small branches from the tree frequently blow into Shane’s garden. Shane claims he has to spend hours “raking those stupid leaves and things”.

This situation has gotten worse with the recent heavy rains, causing small and medium branches from the tree to be blown over into Shane’s property. Shane is worried that in a heavy thunderstorm, the tree might actually be hit by lightning or otherwise crack and topple over into his garden. Jason responded.

“That tree has been there since our parents and nothing has happened. It’s perfectly healthy – I just had it inspected!” However, he admits that a tree on the next street had indeed been hit by lightning during a major storm; some large branches had broken off and fallen into the adjacent house. Fortunately, the damage caused was minor – the neighbor’s fence was damaged slightly, as were some pots and plants.

Jason, in turn, has his own complaints against Shane. He claims that Shane has gotten really peculiar in the last few years, bordering on having paranoid delusions. “He thinks that criminals are targeting this neighborhood, and has put bars and grills everywhere on his house. And the dogs!!”

Indeed, Shane has a lot of pets: 4 dogs and at least 3 cats (to the best of Jason’s knowledge). The dogs include one “ferocious-looking Doberman” and the others were “yappy little things, barking at everything.” The dogs would bark every time anyone (including Jason) walked by. One time, walking by while he was deep in thought, Jason was surprised by the dogs’ barking and tripped and cut his ankle on some broken glass – he had to go to the hospital to get stitches.

Shane also walks the dogs past Jason’s house 3 times a day, at exactly 8 am, 4 pm, and 10 pm, rain or shine. Jason has an outdoor covered patio on which he likes to sit and drink coffee, and do his work (he works from home). However, the dogs would often sit and stare at Jason while they were passing by his house on their walks, making him, in his own words, “really uncomfortable – I wouldn’t be able to concentrate and had to go back inside”.

He claims that this has led to mental stress as well, as he anticipates the dogs’ pending presence and cannot concentrate starting about 10 minutes before the dogs will appear. He also suspects that the doo poo that occasionally appears in front of his house is from Shane’s dogs.

In response to these statements, Shane said “of course I’m anxious about being burgled, there was a spate of robberies two roads down last year! And all these big houses – they attract criminals thinking that we are all rich!” In response to the barking complaint, he stated that he “trained his dogs to bark at strangers – that was the sensible thing to do.” He pointed out that the neighbors on the other side of the road also had loud dogs that barked when people approached: “Why didn’t Jason complain about them?” Shane denied that he let his dogs poo in front of Jason’s house.

Shane admitted to being lonely, especially during the COVID lockdown, which was why he had all these animals. And “no other neighbor had complained about his animals, so what was Jason concerned about? He’s just being overly sensitive.”

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